Re: [GIT *] Allow request_firmware() to be satisfied from in-kernel, use it in more drivers.

[Dave Jones <davej@redhat.com>]

On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 08:51:33PM -0400, Theodore Tso wrote:
 > For one reason, because there's more than one mkinitrd.  FC9 ships
 > with mkinitrd 6.0.52; OpenSuSE ships with mkinitrd 2.1, and the
 > sources don't look even vaguely similar to one another.

Right. Other than name, they've historically shared nothing.
Both have grown through the evolution of multiple distros, requiring
different workarounds in each due to differences in CONFIG_ options
in the kernel between vendors for eg.

Whilst it would be great for unified development on the tools that
create the early boot process, I think it's a non-starter due to the
fact that you can't really do it without throwing out everything you
already have today.  The same reason imo, that hpa's klibc work hasn't
gained mass-appeal from vendors.

Even if we had a 'reference' mkinitrd in the kernel, it would be pretty much
useless until it reached feature parity with every distros existing tools,
and if everyone uses those instead of furthering the reference implementation,
it fails on the starting blocks.

	Dave

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